Policy coherence by subterfuge? Arenas and compromise‐building in the European Union's energy efficiency policy

Deters, Henning

doi:10.1002/eet.1822

Cited by 9 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Before codecision became ordinary, the existence of multiple legislative rules made it possible to play the “treaty base game” (Rhodes, ), that is, to select the most “change‐friendly” institutional rules. Similarly, the delegation of environmental policy to the Commission and to transnational expert committees serves as exit from the JDT, to the extent that public controversy is replaced by technocratic consensus (Deters, ).…”

Section: Decision Traps and Their Exitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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European environmental policy at 50: Five decades of escaping decision traps?

Deters

2019

Env Pol Gov

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Rather than being constrained by the least ambitious governments, the European Union (EU) has until recently set the pace of national environmental policy. The contribution examines why the EU was often able to set the pace despite the institutionalist expectation that national diversity and quasi-unanimity should produce joint-decision traps. It also explains why this is no longer the case. Adopting a long-term, diachronic perspective, I argue that the EU's unexpected dynamism and its recent decline are related to distinct institutional exits from the joint-decision trap that have opened and closed in different periods. During the emergence of the policy area, diversity was manageable through bargaining, and joint gains were abundant.Between the late 1980s and the Eastern enlargement, as environmental policy was increasingly adopted under the community method, supranational intervention became an additional exit mechanism, with an activist European Parliament and strong agenda setting by the Commission. Since mid-2000, the green dynamism is in decline, as supranational interventions wane and bargaining solutions become insufficient to cope with increased diversity after enlargement, exacerbated by the economic crisis. However, nonpolitical lawmaking in the regulatory mode is emerging as a novel exit from the joint-decision trap.

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Section: Decision Traps and Their Exitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bargaining power in the fuel efficiency directive was slanted toward Germany, the least ambitious actor. There were no plans to push ahead with national regulation, as this would have had technical and legal drawbacks (Deters, ).…”

Section: Flexibility or Rollback?mentioning

confidence: 99%

European environmental policy at 50: Five decades of escaping decision traps?

Deters

2019

Env Pol Gov

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“…The geographic scope of the study has primarily been Finland, even though the findings can be used to support more general ecodesign approaches by other stakeholders and countries as well. The defined development areas represent a cohesive and coherent (Deters, 2018) collection of different areas of action to be supported by public means, similarly as proposed on a regional scope by Jordan et al (2014). Companies also need to prioritize their actions in relation to the circular economy (Heyes et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting ecodesign implementation: The role and development areas of national public policy

2023

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The European Parliament adopted the Circular Economy Action Plan in 2021, with which it identifies the importance of the design phase to improve products' circularity and environmental impacts. With an environmental design approach – ecodesign – companies can proactively reduce, avoid, or eliminate adverse environmental impacts that occur during the life cycle of a product. However, the practical implementation of ecodesign is not widely studied, hence, there is little evidence indicating a comprehensive or structured use of ecodesign in companies. Moreover, current policies are not considered as sufficient to promote the systematic use of the concept. This research studies company views on drivers and barriers of ecodesign, its practical implementation means, and compiles the most important development areas for the public sector to support ecodesign implementation in companies. Based on our study, the key drivers and barriers relate to company values, customer demand, tools, information, competition, regulations, and standards, reflecting both internal and external factors. With regard to implementation, ecodesign has been a systemic and continuous activity in companies, ranging from products and services to processes and marketing, but often with no dedicated resources. Subsequently, the key development areas for public policy are the establishment of stable and predictable regulations; provision of clear and structured information; provision of ecodesign tools supporting decision‐making and which are easily available for different purposes and sectors. These mutually supportive areas are important for promoting ecodesign more systemically. In future policy actions, it would be important to further introduce interlinkages and synergies between various policy tools.

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“…Finally, some scholars study barriers that arise in the interplay between institutions and actors. See for example, Howlett and Rayner's paper on path dependencies (2007), and Deters's analysis of policy entrepreneurs' ability to overcome institutional constraints when formulating goals (Deters, 2018). Although these studies differ both in analytical focus and in the solutions they offer, one important similarity stands out: they mainly identify barriers which policy makers must address to overcome incoherence .…”

Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy coherence in the Nordic bioeconomy? A novel set‐theoretic approach to studying relations among policy goals

Christensen

2022

Env Pol Gov

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The green transition requires a reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels, and new innovations suggest that refined biomass can replace fossils within many different industries. In recent years, policy‐makers have therefore framed the bioeconomy as a stepping‐stone for realizing social, economic and environmental objectives in the green transition. However, the policy coherence literature faces a key challenge for analyzing whether these policy goals are indeed compatible: few methods offer a systematic approach for detecting interdependencies and interactions among three (or more) policy goals. The present paper addresses this methodological challenge by proposing a novel set‐theoretic approach, the Alternating Necessity Test, for identifying whether policies are incoherent, weakly coherent, or strongly coherent. The present paper applies this approach to the Nordic bioeconomy context, findings the Nordic bioeconomy strategy to be weakly coherent. This suggests that the Nordic countries can replace fossil fuels with refined biomass without encountering trade‐offs among social, economic and environmental policy goals, but also without experiencing any synergies. Demonstrating how policy coherence and goal compatibility can be conceptualized in set‐theoretic terms, this paper offers a novel tool for identifying those situations in which policy‐makers should focus not only on overcoming incoherence, but on progressing from weak to strong policy coherence.

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Policy coherence by subterfuge? Arenas and compromise‐building in the European Union's energy efficiency policy

Cited by 9 publications

References 29 publications

European environmental policy at 50: Five decades of escaping decision traps?

European environmental policy at 50: Five decades of escaping decision traps?

Promoting ecodesign implementation: The role and development areas of national public policy

Policy coherence in the Nordic bioeconomy? A novel set‐theoretic approach to studying relations among policy goals

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